5 Drills You Can Do At Home To Improve Basketball Dribbling Skills

Published: 2022-02-24

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Dribbling the basketball is a practice that if not maintained, can easily lose its touch. While it’s easy to head out to the court, put up shots and feel accomplished, ensuring a workout routine is well-rounded is very important. Below are five dribbling drills you can do on your own at home with minimal equipment needed. Add this series to your workout plan each week to keep your handles moving and improving. \

Points of Focus: You’ll see some of these notes repeated below, however, keeping these points consistent in your dribbling and ball handling practice will best help you translate these skills into a game.

Stay low in a stance.
Bend your knees and keep your chest up.
Protect the ball.
Maintain ball control through your fingertips.
Emphasize in-game speed and movement!

Crossover Dribbling Series

Start with the basics when beginning your dribbling workout. The goal of this series is to warm up your hands and body with familiar moves. Perform this drill both stationary and moving with quickness and efficiency to mimic in-game speeds.

In & Out Dribbling Series

Moving onto combo moves, we’ll add the in and out into this series for an added challenge in the skill and control department. For these moves, remain intentional with your dribbling and continue to stay low in a game-speed stance.

Tight Dribbling Series

Tight dribbling is a fantastic way to improve your handle and control of the ball. In this series, you’ll go through a variety of moves tighter than typically performed. Quickness is key here as you are looking to maintain control of the ball while increasing overall efficiency. A tight handle doesn’t mean an easy handle. The goal is to complete each move stronger and cleaner than in a normal stance, while your normal stance improves over time.

Ball Manipulation Drill

A modern handle is fluid and presents multiple ways to move the ball to manipulate and move around a defender. This drill opens the door to a new level of comfort with these maneuvers. Though these aren’t moves you’d use in a game, this drill allows you to learn and improve on your fingertips' overall ability to push the ball in different directions while maintaining control.

Two Ball Dribbling Series

Last in our brief, but an efficient rundown of dribbling drills is a two-ball series. Nothing puts your strong side up against your weak side like using both for dribbling at the same time. This drill will take you through a variety of two-ball dribbling techniques that will challenge and improve your hand-eye coordination.